United Arab Emirates: The Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC), Road & Transport Authority (RTA), has recently honoured 15 distinguished cabdrivers under the Distinguished cab Drivers’ Mentor Award 2010 sponsored by Noor Takaful LLC; the Shari’a-compliant insurance brand of Noor Investment Group. The Award, which has a total purse of about 61,000AED, is intended to educate drivers on safe driving, and step up the operational efficiency of the DTC.

Marking the event, the CEO of DTC Abdul Aziz Malik said in a special function held at Intercontinental Hotel in Dubai: “Today we are excited to honour 15 ideal cabdrivers out of 7800 cabbies in the DTC through the Distinguished Cab Drivers’ Mentor Award inaugurated by the DTC in 2010 under the theme ‘No to Traffic Offences, No to Accidents, No to Quality Offences’ as an initiative from Taxi Accidents Survey Team. The Award comprises three categories: The Diamond Cabby (rewarded by a 5,000AED and a Certificate of Appreciation), the Gold Cabby rewarded by a 4,000AED and a Certificate of Appreciation), and the Silver Cabby rewarded by a 3,000AED and a Certificate of Appreciation).

“This Award seeks to recognize the ideal cab drivers in the light of permanent benchmarks established in the course of assessing and educating cab drivers on safe driving, raising the operational efficiency of the DTC, and directing cabbies to comply with the traffic regulations and remain attentive and vigilant on roads.

“DTC is keen on innovating and rolling out new initiatives and schemes to raise cabdrivers’ satisfaction and fully train and groom them before deploying them as we view them as ambassadors and representatives of the RTA to the public and a mirror clearly reflecting the policy and methodology adopted and advocated by the DTC. These initiatives include the decoration of honest drivers on monthly basis based in Cabdrivers Performance Assessment System on quarterly basis, where 2 million dirham are set aside as rewards, and honouring distinguished service cabdrivers among others. Motivation is the first and foremost tool adopted for leveraging the service level and raising drivers efficiency through offering them financial rewards and gifts as an incentive for achieving higher service levels.

The CEO of DTC thanked Noor Takaful Company for the ongoing cooperation and patronage of this Award as well as its participation in various educative campaigns staged by the DTC with the aim of raising the awareness of cabdrivers towards maintaining road safety, minimizing the occurrence of accidents, and boosting the satisfaction of distinguished drivers & customers. He also lauded the efforts and initiatives made by Taxicabs Accidents Survey Team and all other ones who contributed to the success and realizing the objectives of this Award.

For his part Pervais Siddiqui, CEO of Noor Takaful LLC, said: “It is our pleasure to cooperate with the RTA and Dubai Taxi Corporation in sponsoring this Award the important of which stems from the positive results we will reap in the form of reducing traffic accidents and offences, and maintaining the safety of the community and road users through advocating the compliance with the traffic rules and safe driving.

“Honourees are urged to educate their colleagues on the importance of this Award and the intended results such that they can follow suit and achieve the results that qualify them for obtaining this Award as well as other similar Awards launched by the DTC, and we also call upon them to redouble their efforts and work tirelessly to sustain this excellent position,” added Siddiqui.

Yousef Al Ali, Director of DTC Fleet Operations and Head of Taxicabs Accidents Survey Team, said: “The standards that have to be satisfied for achieving this Award include: the driver’s file has to be free traffic accidents, traffic offences and quality offences throughout 100 thousand kilometers done during the year. Preference between the first, second and third is made on the basis of the highest daily income.

“The cash rewards are distributed proportionately to the 15 honoured drivers at the DTClevel with breakdown as follows: 7 drivers from the 12-Hours Shift system, 3 drivers from Airport Taxi system, 3 lady drivers from Ladies Taxi system, one driver from the District Taxi system, and one driver from Hatta Taxi system,” added Al Ali.

For their turn, the honoured drivers expressed their deep thanks and appreciation to Dubai Taxi for this Award and renewed their intention to do more efforts in delivering their tasks. They also stated that this step was considered a great incentive for them to aspire for even better in serving customers in keeping with RTA‘s achievements, the regional profile of Dubai and the advancement made at all economic, commercial, property, tourist and service sectors among others.